NEW DELHI: In an attempt to dispel the notion that the BJP does not give tickets to Muslim candidates, the saffron party's Minority Morcha has initiated the process of preparing Muslim cadres as potential contestants for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.
The national President of BJP's Minority Morcha, Haji Jamal Siddiqui, told IANS: "It's time to increase the representation of Muslims in electoral politics and the BJP is working on it."
Siddiqui said the Minority Morcha has identified about 50 minority-dominated assembly seats in West Bengal and he believes that some of these seats will be contested by Muslim candidates in the upcoming elections.
The BJP leader pointed out that the representation of Muslims in electoral politics has declined over a period of time, which needs to be corrected.
"From the panchayat to Parliament, Muslim representation has fallen over a period of time. People also blame us (BJP) for not giving tickets to Muslims, which is not true as tickets are given on the winnability factor of a particular candidate. We have started working to improve Muslim presence in electoral politics," he said.
Talking about his plan, Siddiqui said that the BJP is grooming its Muslim leaders at the ground level. Sharing details for the West Bengal assembly polls, Siddiqui said that due to the continuous efforts in about 50 Muslim dominated Assembly seats, the party not only found workers for the booth level committees but also found 'Panna pramukh' and some of them have great potential to perform well in electoral politics.
"We have started working on these Muslim dominated Assembly constituencies in West Bengal. We believe that some strong Muslim leaders suggested by us will get BJP ticket to contest the upcoming Assembly polls," he said. (IANS)